“We are focusing on the series… a lot of cricket before WTC”: Rahul Dravid ahead of Hyderabad Test against England

Hyderabad [India], January 23 (ANI): Indian cricket team head coach Rahul Dravid said on Tuesday that their focus at present is the Test series against England and “there is a lot of cricket” to think about for the World Test Championship.

India will lock horns against England in the first Test which will be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. The second Test of the series will be played at Vishakapatnam, third Test at Rajkot, fourth Test at Ranchi and the fifth and final Test at Dharamsala.

India are playing their first home series of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle 2023-25. India are currently placed second in the WTC standings with a win percentage of 54.16.

Dravid said England is a very strong team and have played good cricket in recent times.

“We can’t focus on the WTC at this stage. At this stage, we are focusing more on this series and particulary in this Test match. We have got to play what’s in front of us. I don’t want to think so far ahead. There is a lot cricket before we can think of WTC but we know that we are up against a very strong team who have played really good cricket in recent times,” Dravid said in the pre-match press conference

India squad for the first two Tests vs England: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC) and Avesh Khan.